Do you use a surge protector for your laptop?

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/1100/powerhouse-page4.html

Page 4 and 5 of this article from Sound and Vision magazine give some advice on how to know if a surge protector is any good. At the time I bought my surge protectors I found that almost all of them on the market list this kind of information.

 

I only use one at home for the time being. I have a nice Panamax Powermax 8 at home. Those $5 surge strip specials at Wal-Mart and stuff are not going to do crap. Do yourselves a favor and make sure you have a Panamax or an APC or something good.

 

I use a surge protector anytime I'm running on AC power....and when I'm at home, I use a UPS.

 

Can someone link me to a product I should buy for my new x60 coming soon.

 

Here you go:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002RSPFS/ref=pd_cp_e_title/002-7544826-0955255

At home i'm using UPS, but when travelling i'm using the one above. The good thing about that device is that it's made by APC and uses voltage from 100V-240V, which means wherever your travels may take you, you're all set.

And that's what i'm using at home. It's battery backed. The reason i'm using that at home is because i hardly ever run my notebook on battery, so i detached it, as it's not good for the battery to be fully charged all the time. And should the power go out, i'm still good and can safely turn off my laptop without risking any damage to my hard drive that may result when power is abruptly cut off.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/APC-...34572/catOid/-13011/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

If I'm plugged in I'm usually hooked to a surge protector. However when I travel I never have one (too much trouble) but I may look into a small one that goes between the power cord and brick.

 

100% of the time. I ended up getting the APC above for my G1. Not sure how well it works, but it's got the standard 75k warranty.

As it were, my home PC got hit by a surge years ago. It was plugged into an APC surge protector and still got fried. But I had the extended warranty, so I didn't even claim it through APC. Hopefully they're better made now. Funny thing is that is the only time I've ever purchased an extended warranty.

 

>.<
Maybe I should look into buying a surge protector for my laptop.

 

Not maybe, but definitely.

 

I marked "always" -- it's actually more of an "almost always" -- but I use surge protectors at home and at work. Sometimes I don't, simply because I don't have one handy and I need to plug my laptop in.

I should get a good portableish one and keep it in my laptop bag or backpack...

 

um at home yeah. I have like 5 things to plug in and one of my outlets is covered by my bed and the other's under my desk and it's really hard to reach. So I got a surge protector.

 

Where's the 'Never' option?

 

I have a APC and a circuit interrupter outlet. I've used one for years because of power interruptions. It has saved my bacon several times.This is the new one that I just got. The old one, that still works fine, is the same but a 350.

This is a good deal with free shipping.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/APC-...34573/catOid/-13021/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

Free shipping on a UPS? They have to be losing money on that... those things are almost pure lead.

 

I'm always on a Belkin Surgemaster 6-Outlet adapter when i'm home.

 

Sometimes on the lappy -when I'm home.

I have two for two desktops I have: one APC, one Tripp.

Otherwise I have a bunch of cheapo suppressor strips and one APC Surge Arrest strip. And some of those are plugged into the -protection only- side of the ups.

I lost a great Lucent chip based ext modem a few years ago. I didn't plug in the phone line.

 

I never use a surge protector, as there is very little chance of my laptop getting surged in by extra electricity.

 

I don't know where you live but all it would take is one thunderstorm to kill your laptop. I had a laptop plugged directly into an outlet charging it one morning and a heavy thunderstorm came up and lightning struck and ran in and hit the laptop and killed the battery. It could of killed the whole thing.

 

Wanted to update with this nifty thing I just bought for the road. It goes In-Line with your power brick, so it only protects your laptop, but also has jacks for phone/ethernet.

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/500NBP.asp

 

A laptop is too valuable to leave unprotected. Protect your laptop from dangerous surges.

 

Hurray! I have a surge protector now!

 

Is it necessary top to use a surge protector if you always have battery in laptop when it is plugged into AC?

 

I use a surge protector sometimes at home and that is about it. If I know a stock is coming I would usually just convert to battery mode just to be sure.

 

Following on from my previous post (at least I think I've already posted in this thread ), good job I've had a surge protector all the time at halls. Idiots do not even know how to use the toaster. They'll put jam or some spread on bread and then toast it. About 5,6 power cuts in the past 2 months

 

Yes - A surge protector will prevent or reduce a high voltage spike form reaching your notebook. A battery cannot stop this.

What a battery can do, is provide power when the AC power is down.

I prefer to use a voltage regulator. This doubles as a surge protector too. With a voltage regulator, if the power is low, the regulator will increase the power to the correct level. OTOH, if the voltage is high, it will try to stop or decrease the power flow to a normal level.

You could have one big voltage regulator with all the gadgets connected to it or separate voltage regulators for each gadget. eg: home theatre, desktop pc, notebook etc. The one connected to the desktop would an inbuilt battery though as this would provide power during an outage.

 

Its better to be safe than sorry. If you can spend 800bucks on a laptop surely you can spend 20 bucks on a surge protector. Without one your asking for trouble.

 

Always use a surge protector, no matter where you are, or in what country you are in. I have fried electronics here in the USA, in London and in India.

For people constantly on the go, there are mini surge protectors that are portable for your notebook. Targus makes a neat in-line one that is very unobtrusive. Some third-party AC adapters (like the Kensington Slim 120W) have built in protection, but it's probably limited.